Apax Partners Said to Drop 6.4 Billion-Euro ISS Bid

Apax Partners LLP dropped a 6.4 billion-euro ($8.3 billion) bid for ISS A/S, the biggest by a European private equity firm since the credit crisis, after the owners of the world’s largest cleaning-service provider said the offer was too low, said two people with knowledge of the talks.

Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and EQT Partners AB, ISS’s owners, told Apax this month they wouldn’t pursue talks after the value of ISS’s publicly traded competitors jumped making an initial public offering more attractive, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks were private. ISS isn’t holding talks with other bidders and is now preparing for an IPO, one of the people said.